Yeah, I cut it close ...
The race started at noon (I honestly thought it started
at 1 p.m. My bad.). I left the house at 11 to walk over to the track,
a trip that takes about 45 minutes. I got to my seat about
15 minutes before the start of the race, where I was joined
by about a quarter million of my closest, race-loving friends.
The temperature reached about 95 degrees F, about 120 degrees F
on the track surface. The racing was hot, with a lot of lead changes and
very few accidents, It took Dario Francitti less than three and
a half hours the drive 500 miles to win his third Indy 500.
Everyone in my area seemed involved in the race,
but it was too hot to be rowdy; there was more water
being consumed than any other beverage. After the checkered flew,
it was the signal for everyone to begin their journeys home.
Most people went to cars parked somewhere in the neighboring
streets, yards and parking lots of the Town of Speedway.
The scene below is of the first part of the crowd to leave the
track's gates. Like me, the folks are walking along
22nd Street.
Maybe their cars were parked in one of the yards,
or at the Speedway Shopping Center about
a mile further west.
A number of children take the opportunity to sell
ice cold drinks to tired, overheated race fans.
Many of them making a profit.
After the engines have been quieted and the aroma of tire rubber
has been wafted away into memories, the scent in the air
is of brats and body odor. Tired people make their way to
the air-conditioned comfort of their cars, RVs, or ... something,
where a little girl's offer of a glass of lemonade is an oasis.
4 comments:
That's too darned HOT!
The lemonade looks tempting though.
Yep, it is, but the racing was good.
I'm glad you enjoyed the streaming of the race. Was it the IMS radio network? If so, it is the broadcast that first introduces a lot of fans worldwide to the 500. It sticks in the mind. No one in my family liked cars or racing but me.
I remember listening to the Quals the day Parnelli Jones took the Pole with the magical speed avg of over 150 mph! There were still some bricks as part of the racing surface then, I believe the stretch, and I vaguely remember the announcers talking about it. So I became a fan while no one else among my family or friends was even remotely interested.
If you're going to get hooked on something it might as well be something totally awesome.
The coverage was great: overexcited shouty Americans in my own living room plus the animated track positions and the timing screen. I was sucked right in and got more and more excited as the race developed. What an ending!
Yep, sounds like the IMS Radio network all right. So... are you gonna go on line to reserve your tickets NOW for next year's race? Oh, wait, the 100th race will be in 2015. Grandstand E, under the roof.
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